When Tua Tagovailoa didn’t immediately get up after being tackled by two defenders during last Saturday’s matchup against Mississippi State, ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath knew something was wrong, seriously wrong. That’s when she knew what she had to do.
Absolutely hate seeing injuries like this. After the game, Nick Saban told me that the injury could be serious. https://t.co/wDi8Aiy4Yp
— Molly McGrath (@MollyAMcGrath) November 16, 2019
“Tua went down closer to the Mississippi State side, so I crossed over to the other side of the field to just get a better vantage point to get closer, to try to hear what the trainers were saying to him, to look into Tua’s eyes and see the pain that he was in, and just try and figure out what is the injury.”
Molly McGrath, who was a guest on the Dan Patrick show earlier this week, immediately sprang into action to gather the news as to why one of, if not the best quarterback in college football, wasn’t getting up.
Sprinting between sidelines, catching up with an ambulance, getting updates from sources and interviewing Nick Saban. @MollyAMcGrath shares the behind the scenes details of what is was like witnessing and reporting on Tua’s season ending injury: pic.twitter.com/B9Un6HBk93
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) November 18, 2019
“There was concern at first, like what’s going on with his face? Why is he bleeding from his face? And he had a towel covering his face and they kept that on his face longer than needed, and I could see it was because he was crying. Because he was kind of balling in pain. So I knew he was in serious pain.”
McGrath, who has worked for ESPN since 2016, did an outstanding job not only gathering information regarding Tagovailoa, but she did a phenomenal job in her delivery. There were only a few minutes Tua’s injury, and her sideline report update.
Personally, I am mostly impressed with her passion and perseverance. While some reporters might have waited on an inside source to provide ESPN the news, she gathered the news herself. So much so, she sprinted across the field to follow Tua.
“I knew it was crucial that I be there when they take him off the cart because I need to see how he got of the cart. If he was able to put weight on his right leg, or the right side of his body, or if he had to be carried. So the cart goes down the field and I sprinted the length of the field from the 10 though the other end zone basically………That was the crucial moment where I witnessed he couldn’t get off the cart on his own. Medical training staff had to pick him up and carry him almost like a child. And when they picked him up, that’s when he screaming in pain and then they brought him into the X-ray room.”
McGrath went on to share in the interview with Dan Patrick, that an inside source confirmed it was indeed his hip and not his ankle.
Had McGrath not sprang into action, not only would rumors and speculations have popped all around social media, but it could’ve been much longer before an official word was released. McGrath did an excellent job not only finding out exactly what happened to Tagovailoa in a very punctual time frame, she also did a fantastic job keeping America up to date with Tua’s status the rest of the game.
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